


wreaths of pine and flame

by aikotters



Series: things we refuse to lose [1]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, 신의 탑 | Tower of God
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Terrorism, Minor Violence, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24383008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aikotters/pseuds/aikotters
Summary: Digimon partners come back. People do not. Imagine Aguero's surprise when Bam does.
Relationships: Ha Yura/Rachel, Khun Aguero Agnis & Rak Wraithraiser, Khun Aguero Agnis & Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace, Khun Aguero Agnis/Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace, Rachel & Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace
Series: things we refuse to lose [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760674
Comments: 18
Kudos: 83
Collections: /r/FanFiction Prompt Challenge #18 / May 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Additional Tags: Past and present character death, implied violence, attempted murder.

Digimon can come back. It's the fact of the Digital World. Digimon come back when they die. They may not remember you, they may not know your name, but their hearts are with you and they grow back stronger than ever.

Aguero has always thought it would never be the same for humans.

He'd seen people die. He'd killed people before. His first kill was at ten, the same as every other Khun. He knew that when a human dissolved here that they didn't return.

So he was very cautious when it came to people. He would have been anyway, he was taught that way. Don't trust anyone. Don't get attached to anyone. Simply make alliances and move through life. Your digimon partner is all you have. That kind of thing.

It wasn't so bad. It meant that he followed his own rules and no one else's. He'd learned his lesson the one time he'd made that mistake.

Then he'd met Bam.

Bam was shy, curious, eager, and kind, among other things. It was almost like her, but not entirely the same. More like a much younger child, not cut down by the selection to be chosen to represent the Khun family.

He just wanted to find his friend. Ambitions, dreams, things beyond that, were irrelevant. Aguero could respect it.

At least until the friend killed him.

It was recorded as an accident, but Aguero had been hacking since he could move his fingers. It had not been an accident.

She had pushed Bam into the digital sea, where nothing returned, where everything was eaten. He had reached out his hand and been left behind.

He had told one person, who inevitably let the dominoes fall without telling anyone the truth. Who else would understand the magnitude of it? Who else would see the cruelty in it? He would have admired it, if it had only not been Bam.

They'd been real chosen children then. They were nearly adults now. Years may pass differently than in the digital world, but it's still time. They were still growing up, so to speak.

Seven years later, out of nowhere Khun met Bam again.

* * *

Someone was attacking Chosen Children.

Not often, and not quickly. Some were left alive, bleeding. Some of their digimon shielded them until help came. But they were being attacked and dying. Enough to concern the beasts.

Every dying child was left with a symbol of eyes made from their blood or painted on the wall. It was the symbol of FUG.

Rachel was the most recent victim. She survived, but her legs were mutilated beyond what the digital world could repair on its own. And her partner had been reduced to an egg.

And now to cap off the whole weirdness of the incident, she wanted to see him, when they hadn't spoken in three years.

Khun was starting to think his life was cursed. Legitimately.

It was a well-known fact that the two of them genuinely disliked each other and had since before that day. Aguero liked to think any successful team efforts with her had been because of him and not her, and she resented him for it, so it had to be true.

Still, if she had information he could use, well, he had to take it. They could come after him or his next and that just wasn't going to be a thing.

He arrived after class (why did he have to go to college now, he could have gone at ten when he skipped regular school) to the general hospital in the area, only to be met with a familiar redhead who should have been from the Blitz family. He was just as annoying.

"Sup, gator?" he greeted.

He got a noise of rage for his efforts. "Keh! Stupid blue turtle, you know my name."

"Hey you never use mine, it's fair." Khun folded his jacket over an arm. "Why are you here anyway?"

Rak grinned, his sharp teeth too wide for a man that was six feet tall. "I heard the yellow turtle can't walk."

"You sadist." Not that Khun disagreed, mind you, it was a satisfying thought but still. "Is that all?"

"Hardly. I want to know what did it so I can hunt them myself."

"Funny." Khun found himself smiling. "I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe we'll be paired together."

"Be grateful that I'll allow you to join me."

"Yes yes." Of course Khun was the one talking to the nurse and finding her room, but it was important to let Rak feel relevant or he ate your entire supply of bananas. Or the chocolate specifically made for Digimon. This was what happened when you were biomerged with your digimon for over twenty-four hours.

* * *

They reached the room with Rak grumbling under his breath about the stench of hospitals.

Two people occupied the single room, Rachel herself glaring at the sheets underneath her legs and the mysterious idol, Yura Ha who had fallen for her charms. In the past seven years, the only teammate that ever stuck with Rachel long enough was the blue-haired young woman herself for some unknown reason.

Kudamon, resting quietly on Khun's shoulders as he always did, hissed quietly. Khun pressed a finger to his head. "Hush you noodle."

"Rude," said the fox.

Rachel glowered at the sight of him. "Come to gloat?"

"I can leave," Khun said from the doorway. "If you want to deal with the stupid gator by yourself go ahead." He dodged Rak's attempt to bite off his arm because well, he always did that. He was satisfied to find Rachel blanch at the thought. "He's very persistent when he wants something."

"You would know," Rachel muttered, but ushered them in anyway. She hadn't changed much in the past three years. A longer ponytail, a few more freckles, some scars on her hands. The egg on her table in a digimon incubator. Those were probably the most noticeable things. "Come in and shut the door. This is private. No one can know what I'm about to tell you guys."

Rak and Khun shared a glance, but did it anyway. Yura scowled at them from Rachel's other side, met with only Khun's raised eyebrows. He could never tell if Yura hated him because Rachel hated him, or she hated him because their digimon were so diametrically opposed to one another.

"Satellite, visible mode," Rachel ordered once they'd sat down. Her satellite formed above her head, the three fake moons revolving around the single larger orb. Hooray for metaphors. "Playback data from three solar cycles previous."

The room dimmed as she spoke. Her satellite glitched and wavered and she grimaced. "Bastard did it on purpose."

"Someone managed to hit your satellite?" Khun failed to keep the surprise out of his voice this time. Rachel was one of the most conniving people he'd ever met, and he only managed to throw her around intellectually because he was smarter than her.

"Yeah." She winced. "Yura and I were with Michael, Apple, and a new kid." Khun pretended hearing two of those names didn't make him want to break someone's skull. Traitorous bastards. "We were doing a search on File in case of more fallen digimental shards before we went back up the tower. We were an hour away from the Village of Beginnings when we got hit. Apple died immediately."

"Apple?" Khun's mouth dried immediately. "But she's -"

"She was the best shielder I've worked with," Rachel said grimly, nodding her head. "She didn't even have time to warn us and her tankmon died. It was…" She shuddered and Khun had known her long enough to know which shudders were her being a snot and which were out of fear. "It was so fast…"

Yura squeezed her hand. Khun considered vomiting.

Rachel swallowed. "I started recording after that and -" She waved her free hand and the video started to play.

For a moment it was just dust and wood chips, debris scattered below the lens view. Then a lone figure, long hair floating gently in the wind, appeared. The satellite was always at a user's eye level. What they saw was what Rachel saw.

Long brown hair, a black jacket, and black pants decorated with red eyes.

FUG, Khun realized numbly. The image scooted back, Rachel trying to escape. But there was a soft noise of claws unsheathing and out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Rachel touch the back of her neck, like they were still there.

The person in front of her spoke softly. "Is she on the list, Ryun?" Khun jolted, nostalgia making his stomach churn.

"Yes," agreed another voice, further back, and Khun winced, stopping Rak from charging the hologram. "Rachel of the Red Light District, youngest of three and yet oldest of three."

"...I see."

"Who are you?" Past-Rachel's voice croaked. "What do you want with me?"

The second didn't come any closer to the camera, which was a shame. It would have helped. They said simply. "We are FUG and for the sake of our god's dreams, Miss Rachel. you'll need to be made of an example of."

"You're, You're going to kill me?" she asked and there was a little cry of protest.

"Over my dead body," shrieked her partner, flying in front of her without hesitation.

The first looked at their opponent dispassionately. Then they lifted a hand. Khun watched Rachel look away, eyes closed. "As you wish," they said softly. A glow of blue light wrapped around their fingers, dark as a starless night. Khun's eyes went wide.

Then they fired and twin screams lit up the video.

But Khun wasn't focused on that. He was staring at the face that appeared from the burst of light and heat, casting their long bangs out of their face for a moment.

Amber-gold eyes. An empty expression. Blood scattered over his cheeks. A familiar white line running down the entire left side of his face, jagged and crooked from a tournament.

"Bam," said the recorded Rachel, voice cracking.

The recorded Bam bowed his head simply, and raised his hand. "It's been a while, Rachel," he said, still looking at them, at her, like she wasn't really there. "I wish we could have met in better circumstances but... " His hand crackled with the twisting binary, wrapping smoothly in his hands. "Goodbye."

The video went to static as Rachel screamed on screen.

"When I came to," Rachel said, as the room lit up again, and Yura had stopped shaking. "Yura was unconscious, Michael and the new kid were dead too, and my legs were… I couldn't feel anything." She squeezed one. "It's hard now but... he left me this way on purpose."

She looked at them. "The name they left behind for me was Jue Viole Grace, but I _know_." Her fingers curled tight, almost making Yura wince. "I know it was Bam. He's back. I don't know how, but he is. And if I'm not safe," Her eyes flickered. "Neither are you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Additional Tags: Implied violence, bomb, swearing

Khun had told Rachel that that information wasn't leaving this room. That was true. He simply put on the group voice chat and told her to repeat it.

"What?"

"You really think it'll stop and end with just you and me," he asked her, thoroughly unsympathetic. "It'll be everyone else, and then it'll be the rest of the regular Chosen. If he's willing to hunt people who can get Perfects and kill them with his bare hands, do you really think he'll stop because he hurt you?"

Do you really think he'll stop if he hurts me?

Not that Khun believed Bam would. Even the niggling doubt that Rachel had always mattered more than Bam, meant more, been more, did not stop the steady belief that Bam would never hurt him on purpose and would do the exact opposite at any given time.

Rachel bristled. But he just looked at her, unimpressed, impassive. Cobalt blue sneered down at burning hazel. "Why me…?" she muttered before doing it. He had never proven she had killed Bam, never gotten her stripped of her power, her right, her partner. And now it didn't seem like he'd ever have to. It almost felt good. Not quite enough for him, but still, fairly good.

But still, it had been seven years, why had Bam appeared _now_?

"She's lying you know that," said Endorsi the second Rachel had finished.

Yura bristled and Khun decided to prevent the travesty that was a Jahad princess and a Ha descendant rising into an unholy war on satellite call, at least not without a better shield than Rak. "She's not. I saw the footage and the egg is here. Digimon can't hide for shit under hospital beds of any kind. So, no, it's real, I'll send you the footage. We need to put some plans in place."

"When did you get the footage off of my satellite?" Rachel asked in outrage.

"When you started to play it earlier."

Rachel looked torn between grudging respect and utter disgust. The feeling was quite mutual.

"Are we hunting the black turtle?" Rak asked with something that could be glee or could be fear. It was hard to tell with the dinosaur maniac.

"Anaak will if we let her."

"I'm right here you fucking prick." The half-princess sounded more amused than sick of his crap, which was basically how they survived each other.

"Good to know." Khun shook his head. "We're better off tracing the pattern he left. If there is one." He glanced at Rachel. "You're sure you weren't hinted at that he was alive?"

"Yes," she grit out. "I'd have been not here if I'd known."

"Cool. I'll leave you to sulk then."

"Good to know you haven't changed."

Khun didn't deign that with a response. Because he had. He was worse now than he had been seven years ago. And it was all because of her.

As he walked down the hall with Rak, who was muttering about ripping off a banana or something, he didn't see the figure standing quietly in shadow, staring at the window out into the sky.

Jue Viole Grace pressed the object in his hand against the wall and said softly. "Message received."

Two minutes later, that floor of the hospital exploded.

* * *

No one died. That was the biggest deal of the whole thing.

No one had died from the mysterious explosion. Yura had gotten a concussion, many of the patients were indefinitely bound to bed rest, and Rachel's satellite had been shredded into so much binary it would be a miracle she could reset it and get half her crap back. They were trying to pick up what could have been an inventory.

But no one had died.

Instead, the entire network had shut down, been hacked, and downloaded at a speed that would be considered superhuman even by the standards of the digital world.

Khun, for the record, was suspicious.

"We were right there, why didn't he knock us out of commission?" Khun, having been a witness, was able to sneak in and access the footage. And no one can nor should stop him. He saw the same figure, right to the right of them, staring off into the distance. He and Rak had been right there and neither of them had done shit.

"The black turtle is getting smarter in his age," Rak offered, but the man looked uncomfortable.

Khun didn't want to disagree with that because that was an insult to Bam. "What if he wants us to know? Like a cry for help or something?"

"Turtles do prefer to group with other turtles," Rak replied, but his heart wasn't in it. This was a bit much.

Which was great because if he meant it that way, Khun was going to kill him. There was nothing in that sentence that he liked.

Unless…

"He wanted us to hear what Rachel said," he said slowly. "All of us. For what though?" There had to be something else. Something they were missing. His fingers pulsed in pain and he grimaced. Kudamon squirmed against his skin, having been patiently listening.

"I didn't know he was there," Kudamon said suddenly. "Until we walked past, I hadn't noticed him. It was like he didn't exist. Like there was only the wall there, no him."

Khun turned this over. Bam had always had that kind of presence, one that didn't say much until he _did_ something. And then he made everyone turn and look just by existing, just by acting. "Could be a technique."

"We just need to find him," grunted Rak through chocolate bar number twelve. "Hurry up with that."

"You want to change places, croc head?"

"I am not a crocodile!"

"Might as well be."

The door to their resting area slammed open and Rachel was wheeled in with Yura glowering at them like a hawk. "What?" he grumbled, irritated. Seeing her once in a year was enough for him.

Rachel only made a noise of annoyance. "I can leave."

"I didn't ask you to show up."

"Well, I _did_ because this is important. I know why Bam went after me."

Khun raised an eyebrow. He wanted to say that he knew Bam better than she did considering neither of them expected him to become violent like this. "What's your theory?" God he hated this woman.

Rachel simply bared her neck instead. It was bare but for the indent that comes from having twin tags at your throat for years. Khun reflexively found himself reaching for his because -

Hers are gone.

"Oh fuck," Khun said.

Not that they knew what to do with that information but, Crests. Bam and by extension F.U.G were hunting crests.

A long time ago, when the ten great families and whoever followed them had decided to adventure ( _colonize_ said a bitter part of him, colonizers and murderers) through the Digital World, they had come across things called Crests. Relics from a long gone age, so it had been said. But they had power, they made it easier to evolve digimon, provided that the wielder could actually use their traits properly in themselves. They were in some other form now, Digmentals or eggs or something, but occasionally people received the original relic or another piece of said relic.

Khun, rather rare for even members of the ten great families, had two. So did Rak. So did Anaak. So had Rachel.

Bam, as far as they had all known, had had none. You didn't need them to evolve your partners but it sure as hell was easier to have a conduit.

Not that Khun particularly knew how to use his. He hadn't needed to in years.

The other thing that made two crests or more important was: you could have two partners.

Most people who did have two, few as they were, often had jogresses, or fusions. It was much less of a drain.

Khun tried to pretend that he wasn't now terrified for everyone's lives. "Thanks for that."

Rachel looked like she wanted to laugh but her eyes were full of terror. He wanted to scream at her, to tell her it was her own damn fault she was in this situation, that Bam was now killing people, friends, that she'd lost the thing that had connected her to the digital world, everything.

But the idea of doing it felt like a waste of time.

So Khun went back to hacking instead.

* * *

Crashing with Shibisu was the best and worst mistake of his life but going to his apartment with the knowledge of Bam being alive and likely with a screw loose made his bed sound like the worst idea ever. He'll take eggplant's couch.

Anaak thankfully never tried to kick him when he took her spot, just snatched his soda. (He always carried extra food on him because of this.)

"He's after Crests." Her voice was fierce, not angry, yet.

Khun nodded.

Anaak wrapped her fingers around the two at her neck. "I'll kill him if he tries to take mine."

Khun felt a horrible impulse to break Anaak's entire face but resisted it. She was a half-princess of Jahad and he was a member of the ten great families (exiled but still). This would end with them both in the currently half-closed hospital. (But most of all he understood how she felt which was why they didn't kill each other at all, generally.) "Why did he need to take them in the first place?"

"More like why didn't he kill the traitor bitch when he was there?" Anaak grumbled.

"No gendered slurs," Shibisu said, flopping on Khun's legs. Khun threw his straw at him. "But yeah seriously, why would he leave her alive? None of _us_ would."

The lack of vitriol is why he told Shibisu the truth in the first place. "He's Bam, he can't kill Rachel. That's like asking Rak to stop eating chocolate."

"Would the Crests even work if she was dead?" Shibisu asked the room.

They all looked at each other. Khun had honestly not thought about that.

"This is getting complicated," Anaak grumbled. "Let's catch the idiot and interrogate him. I have a whip now, I can do it."

"That won't be necessary," said a voice, soft as gossamer.

Suddenly, all of their digimon reacted at once to the long haired young man standing in the doorway. They all moved to their feet, a creeping sense of dread in Khun's stomach. His hair was the same shade of chestnut brown, eyes hooded behind his bangs. He leaned against the doorway with crossed arms, a gesture the Bam they all knew could never pull off, and just regarded them.

"How did I miss him again?" Kudamon spat, leaping from Khun's shoulders before he could tell him not to. The other's digimon weren't much better, attacks forming at the edges of their control.

Bam looked at them through hooded eyes, the same empty expression from the video on his face. "I don't want to hurt you," he said simply. "I would rather this be peaceful."

"You're not taking these," Anaak snarled, already over the sofa. "They're mine."

Bam's eyes flicked to her and he nodded. "I don't want to. I'd rather you help me."

Simple, flat. Hollow as an empty bowl. But - "What?" Shibisu asked dumbly, which saved Khun the trouble of being upset by his own ignorance.

Bam simply held out the two tags on one fist. "She can't use these," he said. "There was no point in leaving them with her. But you all can use yours. Help me with this and I'll be dead to you again."

Despite the fact that his friend was now a mass murderer, something in Khun's stomach recoiled at the idea of him being dead again. "Help you with what, exactly?"

"Completing the circle." Bam pocketed Rachel's crests and looked at Khun. Something flickered in his eyes. "To open the path forward. Now, decide. Help me, or I hurt you."

It was the matter of factness that hurt the most. Khun thumbed his digivice in his pocket.

Anaak simply lunged, all of their digimon right on her heels.

Bam sighed and his eyes, cold and like holes in his face, turned a thick, viscous, bloody _red._

Everything went promptly to shit after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... sorry? Not sorry.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Additional Tags: self esteem issues, discussion of character death, emotional repression, scarring.

Khun woke up freezing cold.

Not the cold of his father's house, mind, but the cold of a harsh floor all the same. Something rumbled above him. Like thunderheads or an annoyed Ran. He jerked his arms reflexively and then hissed. He was tied up. He could still move but his hands were tied so he couldn't reach his Digivice, let alone Kudamon, which scared him. Much as Kudamon was a little bastard, Kudamon was _his_ little bastard and he didn't want the guy hurt even when he deserved it.

There was a low humming sound feet from his head and Khun made himself open his eyes. It took him a moment, but his hazy vision cleared into a single platform. It thrummed a soft rose pink under his cheek.

"You're awake," someone rasped.

Khun lifted his head to see Bam, knelt in front of him. His golden eyes were empty and glassy, like a translucent stone. "Bam," he said softly, throat aching from pain and even a bit of despair. He'd always thought Bam would be…

Bam shook his head. "Not anymore. He did die in that sea. That child who couldn't protect anyone, who saved only his skin alone, who fell into the sea, he doesn't deserve to be alive."

Something in Khun curdled at those words. "What… what are you doing?"

"Awakening my Miracle," he said simply. "Closing the circle. So I can stop Herissmon from killing everyone. To do that I need to open an Ancient Gate. To do that I need as many crest bearers in position as possible. To do that I…" He shrugged a bit, and Khun could see the dark circles thick under his eyes. "I had to do as I was told."

Herissmon. Bam's supposed partner Digimon, a happy-go-lucky, bouncy little hedgehog who trailed after everyone and cheered at anything even when she didn't understand it. They fell into the sea together. They both died together. Or…

"She protected you," he realized.

For a moment, he thought that he saw tears glisten at the edges of those blank eyes. "No," Bam finally sad said. He took a hand and unzipped the sweater that hung over his body, past his hips, followed by a steady one-handed unbuttoning of his shirt. "She gave me life."

Bam's chest was an _ugly_ mass of scar tissue, spiraling up from where the heart would be all the way over to the edges of his ribcage, nearly down the stomach, mixing with lines of zeroes and ones between the gaps in the spiral.

All Khun could do was stare. His arms, behind his back, tried to move to touch it, but it only succeeded in wrenching his elbows.

"Bam…" he started.

Bam shook his head. "That child is dead. That child is dead and a failure. I...I will make this right. I won't let her do this to you, to anyone. I'll take responsibility for her mistake." The glassy look in his eyes seemed to only grow worse, like his eyes were almost turning silver.

He buttoned himself up and zipped up the sweater. "Don't worry, Mr. Khun. So long as you stay there, you'll be alright. This ritual isn't designed to kill anyone. Ryun will let you go when it's over." He paused. "Maybe. If it's something beyond the path I'm in she hasn't told me."

This didn't seem to perturb him in the slightest. He seemed used to it.

"Why didn't you bring Rachel?" Khun finally asked. "Why go to all the trouble of keeping her alive and not just kidnapping her along for the ride?"

Bam straightened up slowly. "She can't activate her own crests anymore so bringing her here to make them would just waste time. Ryun can do it."

"I can't help but feel like you've traded one bad woman for another Bam," he said before he could stop himself.

Something red flashed in Bam's eyes, but it sputtered and died too quickly to really register. "Maybe. But that's fine. Yggdrasil isn't shining on me anyhow." He turned away and walked to the center of the platform.

Khun strained his neck. Rak was to his left, Anaak at his upper right, a man with blonde hair his direct opposite. They were all unconscious, except Rak, who was squirming, his eyes flashing between red and gold as he and guilmon argued over what to do next.

Kudamon wiggled his digivice in his pocket. Okay that was good. He'd left them armed. Was he that confident? Or did he just not care if they tried to escape?

Khun watched Bam kneel in the middle, pulling out the ribbon in his hair and tying it around his neck. His chestnut brown hair spilled over the ground, even with his head bowed. "Set, Ryun?" he asked softly.

"Yes, Viole." Khun craned his neck and saw a woman with beautiful red hair and one side of her face hidden by an eyepatch.

He racked his memory, until -

"The Ranker Game," he whispered in sudden realization. The first time he'd seen Bam snap on anyone was at the sight of Rachel defenseless on the ground and had struck out with something, along with his weapon. It'd cost them a lot but it had happened. She was from that time? She'd been disqualified!

She didn't look at him, but she didn't need to. Something sparkled in her remaining red eye. "It's almost time, Viole. You may want to get started."

All Bam did was nod, and close his golden eyes.

Khun had a very sudden terrible feeling that he'd never see them open again.

He glanced towards the others again. Rak was staring at him. He'd been gagged, which was the smartest move anyone here had ever considered. But Rak didn't look away from him, barring a simple jerk of his head. Khun followed his gaze and managed to smirk.

It was no ultimate combination but he and Rak could work together sometimes.

* * *

Viole breathed out.

Breathing was so easy now. It was so easy to lose it, and yet right now it was back to being instinctive, automatic, necessary. He didn't have to concentrate on it. He just had to do it. At least for a bit longer. None of them could confirm what would happen next, after all. It would have been exciting if it wasn't so sad.

Still. He was ready. The dam in his heart had not burst. He could do this.

"Oh light," he said, staring up at the rumbling clouds, the darkest night. The old one's namesake. "Oh light that breaks up my night. The time has come to grant the wishes cast to you in the guise of stars."

The words didn't mean anything, the texts had made it clear that it was never about words, spoken promises or any of that. It was the intent of the soul, the meaning behind the power. And he had been revived through the light of a miracle.

Viole was going to make the worlds themselves pay up on those promises.

"Oh light," he repeated. "The time has come for the sun to set. For the night to blanket the earth. The time has come to sleep. Please now, entreat yourself to me. I give you my light. I give you my miracle of life. I offer to you the children who once danced in the stars. I offer to you their hopes and dreams to borrow. I offer myself to take. Please hear me… _Homeostasis."_

The air and earth _groaned_ and everyone began to let out horrible moans of pain. Viole's eyes found Hwa Ryun's gaze. She was the only one silent, smiling at him like he was the stars themselves. She had a single hand over her heart, clutching Rachel's crests. The ones Rachel had stolen, knowing or not.

 _I'll grant your wish now,_ he wanted to say, but then his own tags started to burn. His skin started to burn and his nose ached as it dripped blood. And yet he could close his eyes without fear. Because _she_ was here. The fallen god. The abandoned child was settling into his skin.

Homeostasis smiled behind his eyelids. " _Hello, Bam."_

Viole wanted to cry. It was like being home. The home with Rachel in it and the warmth of a light he'd never been able to word.

" _You've done so well. And it's only just begun."_ She sounded proud anyway. " _But no need for that now. Let me grant that friend's wish and then I'll grant your own."_

Viole didn't make a sound, his arm lifting quite without his desire. He gestured towards Ryun, who opened her arms. The egg landed neatly in them, a brilliant pitch black with silver rings. Ryun breathed out gently and closed her eyes.

He felt himself rising to his feet, looking up at the roiling clouds. His eyes caught a glimpse of the symbols of the crests glowing over their wielders, each of them groaning. Even Rak's eyes were squeezed shut, panting with the exertion of holding the power steady with nothing to give it to.

The only one looking at him now was Khun. Staring with something Viole couldn't hope to parse, filling him with something sickly, worse than guilt. The dam held.

The god turned his head away, upwards." _Now,"_ they whispered together. "Gate, open."

The clouds scattered, leaving a single ray of golden light shining down on his skin. His body flickered blue.

" _Are you ready?"_ asked the god.

Viole nodded at once, willing the dam to stay. At the gesture his body floated up and up and up, the others growing smaller, the circle starting to break. Everything was fading away. He exhaled and closed his eyes.

His destination was a place beyond the Digital Sea, beyond this plane. The place where he and Herissmon had reformed in, where Herissmon had succumbed to madness. He could… he would heal her now. After that, it was just finding a new way out. If there was one.

That or dying together, Viole couldn't really say he minded. Someone else would take his place. Rachel's legs would heal. It'd be fine.

The world below faded away and it was almost like being in a tube slide that was going upwards.

Then something caught a grip on his leg.

Viole looked down. Khun had a very firm grip on his pant leg, and a small smirk on his face.

"Finally," he gasped out, body burning gold. "I finally got you. I'm not letting you run this time, Bam."

Viole swallowed. "Mr. Khun… please let go."

"No."

"Let go please!"

"No," Khun repeated, utterly calm in the face of the breaking dam, of the tears he'd been choking himself with for years. "I'm fine right where I am thanks. Could stand a slightly better view if I move up."

Viole shook his head. "You have to go before you can't come back."

"Oh so it's fine if you can't?" Khun's eyes narrowed. "I've just found you not dead. I'd like to appreciate it when you're not trying to murder everyone and this seems like a great place to start."

Viole didn't flinch. He hadn't flinched in a long time. But the dam was about to burst and he didn't know what would happen.

Khun took his silence and pushed himself up until he was able to reach Viole's wrists and grab them, loose enough that he could be escaped, but tight enough to make his point clear, he thought.

"You're not running away this time." Khun's smile had a darker tinge than Viole had ever remembered seeing as Bam. "This time, I'm keeping you with me. You…" Khun paused and Viole felt his throat close. "You mean more to me than you seem to understand. So. Fill me in. _What's going on?"_

Viole's fingers twitched. He opened and closed his mouth. Then behind him, he saw the brown and red projectile before it crashed into the two of them. "An adventure without Rak is an adventure not worth having," grunted the older man. "You turtles won't escape me that easily."

Viole didn't hear what Khun's retort was. instead, he felt the dam crumble and silently wept with something like relief.

They noticed, of course, but it was fine. This was their Bam and he wasn't dying on them a second time.

Homeostasis hummed in Viole's head. _"It's okay to be greedy and ask for two wishes. Your mother forgot her last one. Now, let's go, Bam. The dead world awaits."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done! Until the next fic anyway. Speaking of the next fic order is: for you dyed my eyes in sensation (the day The Three meet), the uncontrollable nature of mint (some snippets about the Ten Families + Jahad, why crests are the way they are, etc, through the perspective of a certain character), you will bleed in the river styx (Ranker Game/Bam's Fall), and the direct sequel to this: where we dance in rain, in which we get all the beautiful details on what happened in seven years, what is happening now, and what friends are for.
> 
> So to explain a bit more bc idk if it'll come up in dance in rain: the digital sea is like falling in the sky, but sharper. You land when you fall and it breaks you when you hit the thing when you fall from the air. The digital sea kills you while you're falling, so there's not supposed to be anything left when you hit the bottom. For reasons, there was for Bam. Unfortunately, because his partner was the one to put him back together, he did not quite come back right. He's Bam just a little to the left. FUG didn't help. So that's what that's about.
> 
> Anyway, that's a wrap for this fic. See you in the next one!

**Author's Note:**

> I wish this wasn't limited to 6k so I could just go but for now please accept this threeshot pilot of me going, hey what if, but digimon? Thanks and I hope you enjoy!


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